Learn how to make your own earthquake preparedness kit with the list of must-haves down below.

Learn how to make your own earthquake preparedness kit with the list of must-haves down below.

Photo: Katy Raddatz, SFC

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LARGE CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKES:

San Francisco: April 18, 1906

Magnitude-7.9, 3,000 killed, $524 million in property damage

High temperature 62 degrees, low 51 degrees

Close-up view of refugees as they flee along Grove Street from the so-called 'Ham & Eggs' fire, San Francisco, California, April 18, 1906. This fire started in a house on the south side of Hayes Street when, around 9am, a woman attempted to make breakfast on her stove, the chimney for which had been damaged in the massive earthquake. This fire burned more territory than any other single fire, and as all fire departments were engaged elsewhere, the fire spread out of control reaching Gough and Grove Streets, eventually causing the destruction of the Mission District as well as the Hayes Valley section, including the Mechanics' Pavilion and the City Hall.

This aerial photo provided by United States Geological Survey, shows a view looking southeast along the surface trace of the San Andreas fault in the Carrizo Plain area of California. Elkhorn Road meets the fault near the top of the photo. The magnitute-7.9 Fort Tejon earthquake in 1857 caused a horizontal shift of about 30 feet near this stretch of the fault. The Fort Tejon earthquake is the California earthquake hardly anyone has heard of — strong enough to rip 225 miles of the San Andreas Fault and make rivers run backward, but leaving nothing like the cultural scar inflicted by the San Francisco Quake of 1906.

Several buildings on this street in Tehachapi, Calif., were damaged or destroyed after a predawn earthquake on July 21, 1952. The earthquake killed 11 people, nine of them children, injured dozens more and damaged or destroyed 75 buildings. The earth bucked for 45 seconds, an eternity for the 1,700 people of Tehachapi and the rest of the Antelope Valley. At the time, it was the deadliest temblor to rip through Southern California in a century.

The ruptured ground of this dry lake bed in the Mojave desert near Barstow marks the track of the 1992 Landers earthquake that stressed the ground so strongly it triggered another quake seven years later and 12 miles away at Hector Mine. Photo by Helen Qian, special to the Chronicle

Photo: The collapse of the 100,000 gallon city water tank at Imperial.

El Centro: May 18, 1940

Magnitude-7.1, nine killed, $6 million in damage

High 94 degrees, low 62 degrees

Photo: The collapse of the 100,000 gallon city water tank at Imperial.

Photo: U.S.C.G.S

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Loma Prieta: Oct. 17, 1989

Magnitude-6.9

High 83 degrees, low 53 degrees

Photo: John and Freda Tranbarger stand by a huge crack that opened up in their front yard after the Loma Prieta earthquake struck. They live near the epicenter in the Santa Cruz mountains. Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Photo: The Northridge Meadows Apartments is shown in this Feb. 16, 1994, file photo after a 6.7-magnitude earthquake centered in the Northridge section of Los Angeles struck Jan. 17, 1994. Of the dozens of people killed by the quake throughout Los Angeles, the most deaths in any one place, 16, came at the complex near the quake's epicenter. What remained of the apartments were razed and replaced with a new residential complex. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Ray Hudson watches a friend's home burn in Sylmar (Los Angeles County) following the Northridge earthquake 10 years ago.

Destroyed and smoldering houses in a mobile home park that caught fire after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake caused substantial damage around 3:20 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. Centered about six miles south of Napa, the quake

After the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 12,000 Bay Area residents found themselves displaced permanently or temporarily. Of those whose homes remained intact, many were temporarily without water, electricity and phone service.

-- Store water in plastic containers such as soft drink bottles. Avoid using containers that will decompose or break, such as milk cartons or glass bottles. A normally active person needs to drink at least two quarts of water each day. Hot environments and intense physical activity can double that amount. Children, nursing mothers, and ill people will need more.

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-- Store one gallon of water per person per day. Don't forget your pets.

-- Keep at least a three-day supply of water per person (two quarts for drinking, two quarts for each person in your household for food preparation/sanitation).

--Change this water every six months.

-- Use household liquid bleach to kill microorganisms: Use only regular household liquid bleach that contains 5.25 percent sodium hypochlorite. Do not use scented bleaches, colorsafe bleaches or bleaches with added cleaners.

-- Add 6-8 drops of bleach per gallon of water, stir and let stand for 30 minutes. If the water does not have a slight bleach odor, repeat the dosage and let stand another 15 minutes.

-- The only agent used to treat water should be household liquid bleach. Other chemicals, such as iodine or water treatment products sold in camping or surplus stores that do not contain 5.25 percent sodium hypochlorite as the only active ingredient, are not recommended and should not be used.

FOOD

-- Ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits, vegetables.

-- Canned juices, milk, soup

-- Sugar, salt, pepper

-- High energy foods such as peanut butter, jelly, crackers, granola bars, trail mix; foods that will not increase thirst.

-- Non-prescription drugs such as Pain relievers, Anti-diarrhea medicines, Antacid, Syrup of Ipecac (used to induce vomiting with the advice of a Poison Control Center), Laxatives, Activated charcoal (used with advice from the Poison Control Center)

**Remember to include special needs family members such as a baby or an older person might have. It is also good to store in a water proof plastic bag important family documents (passports, wills, medical records etc.) along with your earthquake survival kit.